Sunday, 6 January 2008

When the Queen Mother died in 2002, at the age of 101, the chatelaine of five royal residences and with a vast retinue of more than a hundred servants, the astonishing scale of her expenditure - on haute couture, millinery, jewellery, a stable of 12 racehorses, vintage champagne and lavish entertainment in the manner of a bygone era - had left behind debts of more than £7million, making her arguably the greatest royal spendthrift since the opulent Versailles heyday of Marie Antoinette.

Incidentally, M-A was plagued throughout her life and into death by rumours and lies about what a spendthrift she was, among other calumnies. The parallels are more fitting than the disgraceful Daily Mail could know.